Running, especially competitively, can be a mind game. "While running, your head is kind of racing along with your feet," says Venrick, who ran her first marathon in the Twin Cities in 2012.

Yoga, on the other hand, is "almost the polar opposite of running," she says. "It's such a mind release. It's a mind eraser, almost, if you can get to that point."

Fitness has always been a priority for Venrick, 25, who was a three-sport athlete in high school. But she hadn't taken a yoga class until she was in college. She quickly found that it was a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. "It's just really calming," says the Sioux Falls woman.

Plus, Venrick adds, "the strength training in yoga is phenomenal. You're supported by your entire body weight. You can hold planks, go into a handstand. It's a lot of work. You see what you're made of."

She draws on her yoga experience when running long distances — and especially during a big race. "It can be tough — especially past 13.1 miles or even before that," she says. "If you can go back to the practices you learn while on the yoga mat and use that to run another step or another mile or another 5K, it's pretty cool. It's pretty magical."

Yoga strengthens people not only mentally but physically, says Jenn Long, owner of Santosha Hot Yoga.

"Yoga asana, or poses, strengthens physically because it's supporting your body, and that is physically demanding," she says. "Where the mental strengthening comes in is back to the breath and calm state. We ask our bodies to go in goofy positions that they wouldn't normally go in, and then we ask it to be calm. We focus on breath when things get stressful rather than react or panic and exit the pose. This transfers to life as when we are in stressful situations, we can think calmly rather than react out of panic or distress. We exercise the control of our minds and reaction."

In March, Venrick became certified to be a yoga instructor and now teaches classes at Santosha Hot Yoga and FORM Fitness Boutique as well as for The Compass Center and Face It Together Sioux Falls.

Venrick runs at least three times a week with her mom and a couple of her mom's friends. These days, it's just a leisurely early morning run since she hasn't started seriously training for her next marathon, the Dallas Marathon in December. "It's kind of like happy hour without the libations," she says.